Noam Israeli Awarded Billboard Endowed Scholarship

Noam Israeli, a drummer, composer, and music educator from Zichron Ya'aqov, Israel, has been awarded the prestigious Billboard Endowed Scholarship at Berklee.

May 8, 2014

Noam Israeli, a drummer, composer, and music educator from Zichron Ya'aqov, Israel, has been awarded the prestigious Billboard Endowed Scholarship at Berklee. One student is selected each year to receive the Billboard award based on his or her outstanding musicianship and strong academic record at Berklee.

The scholarship, created in 1996 with a generous endowed gift from Billboard magazine, has been presented to some of the finest young Berklee-trained musicians currently working in contemporary music, among them pianist Hiromi Uehara, singer-songwriter Charlie Worsham, alto saxophonist Jaleel Shaw, guitarist Nir Felder, tenor saxophonist Bob Reynolds, and tenor saxophonist Walter Smith III.

A finalist in the 2012 Thelonious Monk Competition, Noam Israel is currently majoring in performance and music production and engineering at Berklee. He is also a member of the Berklee Global Jazz Institute, led by renowned pianist/composer Danilo PĂ©rez. Prior to enrolling at Berklee, he studied at the Rimon School of Jazz and Contemporary Music, the Center for Jazz Studies at Israel Conservatory, in Tel Aviv, and the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music, in New York.

He was introduced to jazz at age 15 by his teacher, the late Amit Golan, who encouraged him to attend Thelma Yellin High School of the Arts. During high school, he received a diploma of excellence from his jazz department and was invited to perform with some of Israel's top jazz musicians. After graduating, he began his mandatory military service as a drummer and percussionist in the IDF Orchestra.